[Use of photography as a method of information collection: a qualitative study with adolescents with cancer]

This article aims at discussing the use of photography as a method of information collection in connection with a qualitative research in a dissertation featuring the phenomenological approach with the objective of understanding the world as experienced by adolescents with cancer. The context was the Oncologic Pediatrics Admittance Unit of Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The subjects who provided information were nine adolescents hospitalized with cancer, of age between 11 and 18 years old. In order to carry out the information collection, photography in connection with semistructured interview and the hermeneutics as interpretation method of the information were applied. Eleven themes arose evidencing the richness of the existential content that permeates the experience of the adolescent with cancer. The study revealed that the care of the adolescent with cancer requires understanding his/her experienced world, perceiving the imperceptible, listening and perceiving what he/she says without saying it, being present whenever needed and including him/her among the issues that involves his/her existence.